President Trump

[newyorkguy]

I notice Trump has said he will consider tariffs on Mexican-made Fords. Probably not gonna happen...

This would be in line with how Trump has said he will force American manufacturers to bring jobs back to the U.S. The reality is, a) Ford probably doesn't want to bring those jobs back to the U.S. and b) Ford is a very powerful corporation. I don't think Trump will find much support among fellow Republicans in Congress if he tried to enact punitive tariffs on Ford vehicles imported into the U.S. from Mexico.

Al Jazeera: Assad apparently bombed a blood bank...

For several months now it's been widely reported that Assad forces have been targeting medical facilities in rebel-held territory. I read a interview with a British doctor who had helped train and supply some of the rebel medical groups -- on humanitarian grounds (most of the populace they serve are essentially bystanders) -- and it was heartbreaking. Also...

I read that Trump's Chief of Staff Stephen Bannon (Chairman of Breitbart News) has been married three times and was once charged with domestic violence.

He sounds like he's Trump's kind of guy!

 

[acbytesla]

Ha!

Standard Unleaded here is ~£1.12/litre $1.39USD at todays exchange rates which is ...


$5.26 for one US Gallon.
(For the love of <insert preferred deity here> can you please start using the metric system)
Tax on fuel here is ~58p/litre then there is VAT @ 20% of total sale price

so at £1.12/litre VAT is 19p Giving a total of 77p in tax per litre which means approximately 70% of the cost at the pump goes to the government in tax.

These are supermarket prices, which are typically 5p/litre lower than petrol stations. Diesel is around £1.17/litre. Premium Unleaded is around £1.26/litre, Premium Diesel is around £1.31/litre.

We were going to in the 70s but the government chickened out and it hasn't been broached since. Nobody wants to pay the price.

BTW, I think we should. I could carry fewer tools.

 

[CapelDodger]

Link to Obama on national debt:

https://youtu.be/DyLmru6no4U

"... to take out a credit-card on the Bank of China in the name of our children ...", wonderful, and really about the deficit. It's that policy "driving up the debt" he describes as unpatriotic.

So in eight boom years Bush increased debt from 5 trillion to 9 trillion, that's one impressive deficit Obama inherited. Along with a great big bust. I think he's done very well in the circumstances.

 

[Belz...]

Shouldn't you just cut to the chase and go by the popular national vote?

No, no. Because then you're basically cutting out the smaller states. The way the EC is set up now gives more weight to those states to compensate. What I was proposing is that the electoral votes be distributed proportionally within a state and, as I said, all else being equal.

 

[CapelDodger]

I despise Trump but talk of the US becoming The Fourth Reich is a bit premature.

Quite. Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad, but Trump is a different kind of mad from the Nazi Party. A kind of Mad Magazine mad.

 

[CapelDodger]

No, no. Because then you're basically cutting out the smaller states. The way the EC is set up now gives more weight to those states to compensate.

To compensate for what? The electorate in those states isn't being cut out so I don't see the problem. One person one vote.

I understand the background to the EC and why it emerged from the States' negotiations back in the day, but that day was a very long way back. I don't see its purpose today.

What I was proposing is that the electoral votes be distributed proportionally within a state and, as I said, all else being equal.

I'm just questoning the need for an EC at all in the modern age.

 

[CapelDodger]

It's also wrong to ignore the possibility. Trump IS not Hitler. But he is is an egomaniacal leader in waiting threatening minorities and changes in our democratic institutions.

On the other hand, he has a firmly established democratic system more than willing to fight its corner, which Hitler didn't.

Remember McCarthy. Over-stepped himself and was crushed. It could happen to Trump, and I've got quite high hopes it will. They'll come at him through his family, just you watch.

 

[trustbutverify]

Sure. But WW2 wasn't that long ago. Many of us are old enough to have talked with relatives who actually served during WW2 - my grandfather did. When I was a child, I spoke with many people who had been there first-hand. I think most of them have passed away by now, but we're not that far removed. If you can see it as a risk, why do you imagine that nobody else can?

They called WW1 the "war to end all wars". Loads of folk, including some of Jewish heritage, dismissed the "over the top rhetoric" of the Nazi party because Germany was a modern, sophisticated metropolis. You think such a descent is impossible in the US? Not even close, and memories would barely slow it down.

 

[trustbutverify]

On the other hand, he has a firmly established democratic system more than willing to fight its corner, which Hitler didn't.

Remember McCarthy. Over-stepped himself and was crushed. It could happen to Trump, and I've got quite high hopes it will. They'll come at him through his family, just you watch.

I tend to agree, but my point is this election broke some new ground for right wing, strongman posturing. I never thought a guy doing a half-ass Mussolini imitation would be elected president. What else that I thought never would happen, might?

 

[acbytesla]

On the other hand, he has a firmly established democratic system more than willing to fight its corner, which Hitler didn't.

Remember McCarthy. Over-stepped himself and was crushed. It could happen to Trump, and I've got quite high hopes it will. They'll come at him through his family, just you watch.

Hitler was elected. Germany was a democracy in 1932. Now I grant you it hadn't been around for 200 plus years, but it was a democracy. A little fire in the Reichstag, blame it on the political enemies and voila, that's the end of it.

 

[logger]

They called WW1 the "war to end all wars". Loads of folk, including some of Jewish heritage, dismissed the "over the top rhetoric" of the Nazi party because Germany was a modern, sophisticated metropolis. You think such a descent is impossible in the US? Not even close, and memories would barely slow it down.

Freedom loving people certainly will fight for freedom. If you're saying it could happen where people would fight to keep your latest socialist/fascist hero from taking over, you'd be correct.

The only way this could happen here is if the left were able to get more power. If hillary had been elected she would have made the supreme court go left. Effectively giving control to freedom hating leftists who feel they need to protect us from ourselves.

 

[Belz...]

To compensate for what? The electorate in those states isn't being cut out so I don't see the problem. One person one vote.

In a country like France, you wouldn't get an argument from me. In a federal state like the US, it's a bit more complicated. Let me illustrate with an example closer to home for me: Canada.

Canada is a federation of ten provinces. Ontario represents about 50% of the total population. Quebec another 25%. So between two provinces you have 75% of the country. However, the situation of a province like Ontario is completely different from that of, say, Saskatchewan. The culture is different, the economy is different, the outlook is different. But when it comes to a vote on a particular issue or election, Saskatchewan is going to get the shaft every time. Ontario has TEN times its population. So if you're always using nationwide proportional votes, Ontario will dominate and dictate policy and politics forever. I don't think most Canadians, even in Ontario, would want the fate of the entire country to be decided by those living in one section of it, regardless of their numbers. So the provinces are treated as more-or-less equals.

In the US you have a similar situation, where independant colonies joined together to form a federation. Obviously they didn't want the more populous colonies to dominate the country and their voice to go unheard, so that was the compromise. Otherwise the US wouldn't even exist. And I think it's still relevant today, contrary to what you say in your post. The population, culture and outlook of Montana and New York are very different, and I don't think the population of the former would want a place in a Union where they are entirely irrelevant.

 

[acbytesla]

Freedom loving people certainly will fight for freedom. If you're saying it could happen where people would fight to keep your latest socialist/fascist hero from taking over, you'd be correct.

The only way this could happen here is if the left were able to get more power. If hillary had been elected she would have made the supreme court go left. Effectively giving control to freedom hating leftists who feel they need to protect us from ourselves.

You're just flat wrong about this. There have been right and left wing dictatorships Just because you have an armory in your shop doesn't mean it couldn't happen here.

Are you and your red neck toting brethren going to stand up to or with the government if Trump passes a law that all Muslims mjust register? Or when he passes a law enabling a police officer to see your citizenship papers?

That you are so myopic that only the left poses a threat proves my point.

 

[dudalb]

On the other hand, he has a firmly established democratic system more than willing to fight its corner, which Hitler didn't.

Remember McCarthy. Over-stepped himself and was crushed. It could happen to Trump, and I've got quite high hopes it will. They'll come at him through his family, just you watch.

The other thing is that don't kid yourself, this love fest between Trump and GOP congress will not last long. In fact, there are signs it is already fraying.
A lot of people in his own party can't stand him.
I disagree about his family;I think it will come through a lot of his shady business deals....including his relationship ,when in the casino business, with a certain Italian American Fraternal Organzation.....though I guess that might qualify as a "Family" causing him issues.....

 

[Cain]

Ha!

Standard Unleaded here is ~£1.12/litre $1.39USD at todays exchange rates which is ...


$5.26 for one US Gallon.

(For the love of <insert preferred deity here> can you please start using the metric system)

Tax on fuel here is ~58p/litre then there is VAT @ 20% of total sale price

so at £1.12/litre VAT is 19p Giving a total of 77p in tax per litre which means approximately 70% of the cost at the pump goes to the government in tax.

These are supermarket prices, which are typically 5p/litre lower than petrol stations. Diesel is around £1.17/litre. Premium Unleaded is around £1.26/litre, Premium Diesel is around £1.31/litre.

Frickin' foreigners better get the memo. Now that Trump's president, you're gonna have to speak to us in English.

 

[Pianoro]

He DID disarm the Jewish citizens of the country, and he DID use the military to round them up on Kristallnacht.

Why? Do you plan to keep your mouth shut and go along with it? I certainly don't.

The German military had nothing to do with the Kristallnacht. It was organised by the Nazi Party and executed largely by its paramilitary forces (SA and SS) and the police, though civilians also participated.

The German army was never used to any significant degree to establish or maintain the power of the Nazi party in Germany. It was also involved in the Holocaust at the periphery only (though the Wehrmacht commited plenty of other crimes). The Nazis were voted into power in free elections; at any point before Hitler took over, his dictatorship could have been prevented simply by voting the Nazis out. However once in power, Hitler and his party consolidated their power very quickly. At that point the civil police and the Nazi paramilitary forces would prevent any dissent by force. After a couple of months there was no more opportunity to speak up against the Nazis.

 

[Border Reiver]

Frickin' foreigners better get the memo. Now that Trump's president, you're gonna have to speak to us in English.

At the risk of a derail -

Memo to the USA - Adopt the metric system. Your military and scientific community already use it. It will facilitate your communication with the rest of the world who already use it.

End of derail.

 

[Stacko]

After Donald verbally attacked Megyn Kelly, "we had security guards the whole year," and the video gets worse from there. It also says a lot about the culture at Fox "News" that they deliberately didn't report this.

 

[acbytesla]

At the risk of a derail -

Memo to the USA - Adopt the metric system. Your military and scientific community already use it. It will facilitate your communication with the rest of the world who already use it.

End of derail.

I agree. But I don't see it happening any time soon. Changing to the metric system was a big issue in the 70s and I don't think it has hardly been discussed in political circles since.

 

[Noztradamus]

At the risk of a derail -

- Adopt the metric system. It will facilitate your communication with the rest of the world who already use it.

End of derail.

Derail established

The rest of the world pretend to use it. I recently had to buy some small bolts. The ones available were labelled: 5/16" British Standard Thread 38mm long (briefly considered getting the 25mm instead, but went with the inch and a half).

Half a centurty after metrication!